Treasures from the People's Republic of YouTube

Here are some truly rare treasures that I recently discovered on YouTube. None of these films are available on VCD or DVD, and it's very likely that they never will be.


Grace Chang in Girl with a Thousand Guises (1959)
As this clip delightfully shows, Girl with a Thousand Guises was a vehicle for the singing and dancing talents of Grace Chang. In the film she plays two roles, one of which is an aspiring actress. Evidently, the story features many parallels with Grace's real life, like auditioning for the movies behind her family's back.


Chung Ching in Songs of the Peach Blossom River (1956)
This is the film that established Chung Ching as a major star and set the trend for Hong Kong musicals in the late 50s. "Silver Voice" Yao Lee provides Chung Ching's singing voice, as she would do in many subsequent films.


Jeanette Lin Tsui in Girl in Disguise (1956)
This remake of a popular 1936 Shanghai film was Lin Tsui's third film. She plays a young lady forced to disguise herself as a man because her father, ashamed of not producing a male heir, has been lying been to gramps about her sex ever since she was born.


Grace Ting Ning in Mischievous Girl (1959)
This is Ting Ning's third film. With this one exception, she worked exclusively with Shaw Brothers from 1958 until her retirement in 1963. Her singing voice is provided here by the ubiquitous Yao Lee.